History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, Part 13

Author: R. E. Lowry
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 985

USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions > Part 13

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

WEIGHED AND FOUND WANTING.

While having so much other business he did not neglect his Eaton store, but kept it abreast of the best and until long years after his death it

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was regarded as the best store in the county. In 1852 he took into partner- ship his son, Harvey, and his son-in-law, Donohoe, and for fitfy years Har- vey ran the store on the principles of his father, that the goods sold should always be just what they were represented to be. As a storekeeper, Vanausdal at once became prominent and soon was known of all over western Ohio and eastern Indiana. He had many Indian patrons, Tecumseh, Little Turtle, The Prophet, Honest John, Indian John, and many Indians of the surrounding country. He knew the Indian character well and al- though his books show the names of half the white men of the county for thirty years as his debtors at different times, there is not an Indian named. They must pay cash because they could not be made to understand why they must pay for goods that had been used up. Mr. Vanausdal often told this story as illustrating the suspicious character of the Indian: Honest John at one time came to the store to trade furs for salt, then selling for five or six dollars a barrel, and the weighing was done with steelyards. First the furs were weighed on the light side of the steelyards, Honest John carefully watching the process; then the steelyards were turned and the salt weighed, and when John saw the pea balance before it got the same distance out as it was when they weighed the furs, he grabbed the steel- yards, exclaiming that they lied, and ran to the door and threw them as far as he could.

Mr. Vanausdal had but little school education, but his quick perception and excellent memory soon supplied his defects and he was a good conver- sationalist upon most every subject, being especially well informed on the Scripture and theology. It is said of him that "what he professed he be- lieved to be true and therefore he was always himself through life." Of medium size, constitutionally healthy, social in disposition and cheerful nearly all the time, he obtained and held the friendship and esteem of the people through a long and useful life, dying August 10, 1870, about eighty-seven years old.

A SCOT WITH A NOBLE NAME.

William Bruce, the founder of Eaton and the originator of the location of the county lines as they now exist, was born on the banks of the Potomac river in Virginia in September, 1762, of Highland Scotch ancestry and grew to manhood in that state and the adjoining state of Pennsylvania, to which his father removed while he was yet a mere boy. Shortly after ar- riving of age, he emigrated to Kentucky and there married Frances Lewis soon after 1790. He soon after moved to Warren county, west of Lebanon,

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and about the close of the century he moved into the Great Miami valley in Montgomery county, and in 1805 came to Preble county and bought three sections of land, on part of which on February 20, 1806, he laid out the town of Eaton. He erected his house about one-half mile south of the court house on what is yet and for many long years to come will be known as the Bruce hill, now the house of his grandson, J. E. Bruce.

In 1806 he built a saw-mill and a grist-mill on Seven Mile creek across the creek from about the west end of Israel street. He made liberal dona- tions of land for the benefit of the town and sold many lots cheap or on partial payments to induce settlers to locate in the town and he frequently gave flour and meal from his mill to those he deemed to be needy and de- serving, and when such brought grist to the mill he seldom took toll from the grist. The mill being a water mill and the only one for several miles around, had to be run whenever there was water to turn the wheels; and as all flour and meal in those days was obtained by the farmer carrying to the mill the wheat and corn for his family or neighbors and having it ground, and if possible, waiting until the grinding was done, then taking home the flour, meal and bran, the only flour and meal kept for sale was what little was necessary to supply the few families who were not farmers, This will show the necessity of running the mill night and day and Sunday, too, if the water held out, because the miller had to remember that "he can never grind with the water that has passed." Mr. Bruce belonged to the Christian church and some of the church members made quite a little stir in the church because while the water lasted he kept his mill going on Sunday, and finally he settled the dispute by withdrawing from the church and continued to run the mill. claiming that people must be fed and pro- vided for. even if it technically violated some law of the church. He is reputed to have been a man of whom it could be said "he was generous to a fault." Kind hearted and blunt in expression, no one could ever misun- derstand where he stood, firm in his assertion of his own rights. He was equally ready to admit and respect the rights of others.

A man of ordinary mind possessing all the independence of character of his Highland ancestry, he was genial and jovial, enjoyed life and loved to mingle with his fellow men, and left the reputation of being the most generous and kind hearted man of his time, and held the esteem and con- fidence of his fellow citizens for his probity, honesty and sterling worth, being elected the first county treasurer, which place he held for ten years, and also other objects of trust. He died in 1832 and is buried in Mound Hill cemetery, and for a monument the grinding stones of the old mill have

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been erected as the most fitting. His wife preceded him to the Beyond some five years. His character and work were as large as the county and his sketch is here given because he rose above and beyond a local character, and while he accumulated a fortune he made the dollars secondary to true manhood.

THE POVERTY OF PELF.

As an illustration of the scarcity of money and the many difficulties against which the early settlers struggled, I can not do better than quote verbatum a subscription paper for work done on a church, prefacing it, however, with the statement that the men and women who settled our county came chiefly from Pennsylvania and all the states south thereof as far as Georgia and Tennessee, and were of all creeds of religious belief from Roman Catholic to those of the most liberal tenets, and the exigencies of their surroundings taught them to be very charitable and liberal towards theological bias of their neighbors, whose help and care and assistance they might at any time be compelled to call for. They seemed to regard the situation as one old man over forty years ago, in talking of the religious generosity of those early settlers, thus expressed it: "We realized that God knew how to separate the wheat from the chaff, and that He did not really need our help or advice." The church was called the "Spacht Meeting House," because near the farm of Jacob Spacht, but like most of our country churches has gone to decay. "We, the undernamed subscribers, obligate ourselves to pay David V. Stephens the sums annexed to our names in wheat, rye, corn and pork, if paid by the Ioth of January next; or in good sugar to be paid after sugar making at the cash price, delivered in Eaton; or in good whiskey to be paid by the first of February next, at cash price, de- livered at the place above mentioned, in payment to aid Stephens for a job of joiner work done by him, amounting to twenty-five dollars, in a meeting- house on a certain lot of land obtained from George Shideler and Thomas Woolverton. Said house is to be free for all Christians to worship God in. -December 5, 1823." Alvy Swain, 75 cents, paid; Silas Frame, $1.00; Joseph Snodgrass, fifty pounds of pork; James Frame, sugar, 50 cents; John Bloomfield, $1.00; Daniel Melling, sugar, 75 cents; Jesse Long, 25 cents : Tobias Whitesell, 25 cents : James Melling, 25 cents in sugar ; Daniel Strader, $1.00; George Hopple, 371/2 cents; George Laird, Sr., 1834 cents; Adam Whitesell, 371/2 cents; Nathan Meroney, 1834 cents, paid in cash ; John C. McManus, 621/2 cents; John Caughey, five bushels of corn ; Menic Saffree, three bushels of corn; Thomas Tomlinson, $1.00 in sugar ; Conrad Bonebrake,

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25 cents in sugar; Peter Bonebrake, one bushel of corn; George Thompson, 25 cents; David Brower, $2.34; John Frame, $2.34. We are glad to note that none of the subscriptions were really paid in "whiskey," even if it was then regarded as a "corn product."

AN UNWELCOME VISITOR.

An incident that will illustrate the loneliness of the life of the wives of those early settlers and the alarms incident to that time, is authentically re- lated of Mrs. Samuel Kesler, who with her husband lived about a mile south of Lewisburg. About 1815 her husband had to go to Cincinnati, a trip that took about a week then, and while alone in the cabin one day two Indians, presumably Pottawattamies, opened the door and came in, one of them with a big knife in his hand. Of course, she became alarmed and backing off prepared to defend herself as best she could. Her alarm seemed to amuse the Indians, but finally the Indian with the knife stepped to the fireplace and stabbed his knife into a burning brand so deep as to make it stick, raised it up and with an "ugh" left the house. They wanted to start a fire in camp and took that way to get it started. Mrs. Kesler barred the door and waited for her husband, who came a day or so later.

"The women of our forest lands, stout-hearted dames were they, With nerve to wield the battle brand, and join the border fray."

One of the early settlers of the county who, by his thought and efforts for others, made a lasting impression on the county was John Fisher, Sr., who was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, February, 1770, and mov- ing to Lanier township in 1817, purchased a farm to which he added others later. He was a member of the Dunkard, or German Baptist church, and a man of more than ordinary capacity, liberal and unselfish in his deal- ings. He firmly believed that mentally and physically the education of our people would make for their betterment and he interested Peter Vanausdal, A. Vandoren, the Bantas and others, and together they built a school house of round logs on the east bank of Rocky run, about eighty rods south- west of the intersection of the Franklin and Old Trace roads, near the big spring then called Worthington's spring, as early as 1819. He employed J. A. Daly and, later, J. A. Mendal, as teachers of the higher grade of studies, and there for some three years was held the first high school of the county. Quite a number of the young men who attended afterwards be- came prominent in the affairs of the county and the influence of that little

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log school house on the educational work of the county was felt for many years.

It is related of "Father" Fisher, as he was called by one who knew him well, that his character for industry, benevolence and integrity was exceptional; that within his knowledge no poor man or family was permitted to go hungry; that at sales where he saw articles of substantial value being sacrificed by low bidding or combination, he would bid it up and if the seller was needy would bid against himself up to its true value. He believed in the "eleventh commandment." He died at the home of his son, Eli Fisher, January, 1844. It seems needless to add that he was loved and respected by the entire community and long remembered.

EARLY SCHOOL FACILITIES.

The educational facilities of our early settlers were very meager. The nation had set apart section 16 of every township to be used solely for school purposes and the state took possession of that section, but as most of the state was covered with heavy forest and the early settlers preferred getting land of their own and improving that, to renting school lands, those sections practically produced no income and finally in 1829 an act was passed allowing the sale of those lands and turning the money into the state treasury upon which the state annually pays to the school fund of the state the interest thereon. The acts and amendments thereto, allowing such sale and use of the money, has produced what is called the Irreducible State Debt, being in reality a contract whereby the state must forever pay the interest. In a general way, leaving out minor technicalities, this is the foundation of the state school levy. But even that help did not come until after the boys and girls of the early days had become men and women.

At first, the settlers of a neighborhood got together and agreed to form a school district and have a schoolhouse and school for their children. A day was set to meet at the place selected for the school house and everybody turned out, bringing axes, broad axes, saws and teams and tools. Trees were felled, the straightest being taken, cut into lengths to suit the size of the building desired, notched and laid up, the floor being puncheon, gen- erally hewed on the upper surface, and the roof clapboards rived from some timber that would split straight, held in place by poles. The door was similar to the floor and hung on wooden hinges with chimney at one end built outside of the house walls, with stone fireplace, and lath and mud top. The windows were made by cutting out sections of the logs where desired

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and covering with greased paper, or thin-tanned fawn skin. The cracks between the logs were filled with chinking and daubed with clay mud.

The desks were made by boring auger holes along the sides and one end, at the same height, driving in long wood pins and placing and fas- tening on them wide puncheon hewed smooth, and in front puncheon benches standing on legs of wood driven into auger holes in the puncheon, so that the large pupils sat with their backs to the teacher in the center and the books, which were few, piled before the pupil. Smaller benches in front were made for the smaller pupils. It was later improved by putting up standards at the seats and running a stringer along to form a back rest. Such a house is the one described to me by my grandfather, who, as a boy about 1807, attended such a school in central Ohio about thirty miles north of Columbus, and I have no doubt that such houses were built in this county.

The work was generally completed in two or three days and was regarded as a frolic. The play ground was the surrounding woods. The teacher was hired generally before the house was built and the school was a subscription school, each parent signing to pay a certain price per day for a certain number of pupils.

WAGES WITH A ZERO BASIS.

In 1830 my father went to school for the first time and, at the end of the week, carried to the teacher three cents for each day, and his big brother had to take five cents for each day. Soon after 1830 the school boards furnished enough money to hold school three or four months in winter, and the spring and fall terms, if any, were subscription schools. This con- tinued for the county schools until, in 1853, laws were passed under the then new constitution, giving the school board more power, and the sub- scription school in a few years was drowned out and became only a memory. Up to about the war it was the custom in many districts for the teacher to board around with the pupils, spending a week in one house, then going to another. Such seems like a hard way to train boys and girls, but judg- ing by the product of those schools and the things done by those boys and girls, the teachers must have had good material to work on.

In those early days, the country being covered with forests and the fallen leaves and decaying vegetation covering the face of the ground, and, acting as a sponge, absorbed and held the water that fell, and the trees (10)

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prevented the sun from drying the ground so that our streams receiving the water slowly draining off the land, flowed a good steady body of water for several months of the year. The roads being little better than Indian trails made a demand for mill products in every neighborhood, and many grist-mills were built in the county to supply the local demand, most of which mills operated a saw-mill also, in which the saws used were of the old sash saw variety, that the boys designated as "up one day and down the next." There are now in the county but four known mills and all are operated mainly by steam or electricity, while there are saw-mills, all steam, near New Paris, Lewisburg, West Alexandria, Gratis, West Elkton, Cam- den, Eaton, New Hope, Fair Haven, New Lexington and a few others.

THE MILLS OF THE PAST GROUND SLOWLY. .

But those early mills were all water mills and I append a list that the reader may judge of the changes that the settlement and clearing of the land has had upon the flow of our streams, most of which rise to flood tide and subside to the size of a goodly brook within a few days now. I will add that all are gone but the memory of those old mills, unless otherwise stated. So far as known they are as follow, being generally named from the builder :

In Jefferson township, Ireland's Mills, below New Paris, and Smith's mills at New Paris; Woofter :mill, Doloff mill and McGrew mill, all above New Paris on Whitewater.

In Jackson township, the Swisher mill on Kelly's branch.

In Dixon township, the Kercheval mill, later called Niccum mill, the Elliott mill and the Dallas mill all on Four Mile creek.

In Israel township, Ridenouer mill on Little Four Mile, Ramsey or McDill mill, Sloan or Wright mill, all on Four Mile.

In Somers township, Barnett's mill, still standing but unused, Ribon- son or Brubaker mill near Camden, built 1816, rebuilt later; Stubbs or later Barnett & Whiteside's mill, south of Camden, and the Irvin mill, all on Seven Mile creek, and Stubbs mill on Paint creek.

In Gasper township the Potterf mill, later called Hall's mill, on Seven Mile creek and Lambert mill on Paint creek near Friendship church.

In Washington township Bruce mill and Vanausdal & Sturr mill, both at Eaton, while the McCleaf mill, now Robinson steam and now electric at Eaton, is yet doing good work.

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In Monroe township Stubbs & Co. mill at Eldorado, steam, built in 1854.

In Harrison township, the Hole, later Turner, now Crider mill, near Lewisburg, first built in 1809, still doing good work, and the Swisher mill above Euphemia, both on Twin creek. The Werts mill at Verona, a steam mill, and yet running; Dennison mill on Twin creek.

In Twin township, the Nisbet, later Mumma mill, near Lexington, 1805. The Stotler & Gale mill, near West Alexandria, is still in operation both on Twin creek; Price mill, Enoch mill and Whipple mill, all on Price creek.

In Lanier township, Egbert, later Halderman mill, 1812; Gregg mill, Sorber, later Bowers mill, all on Twin creek.

In Gratis township, the Neff mill, later Rohrer, on Twin creek, 1806; : the Taylor mill on Pleasant run and Ferry mill on Elk creek; then there was a steam mill at west Elkton, but all are gone.

These old mills served well the pioneers of our county, but all now are but memories, even the location of many being almost forgotten. In addition there were formerly some five or six woolen and carding-mills. but they, too, have gone the way of all the world.

OUR FOREFATHERS WERE "WETS."

In those early days there were many small distilleries scattered about the county, mostly run by the farmers who turned their corn into whiskey and marketed it in that shape, and it is said that most of it was good whiskey, and not the fiery "moonshine" now found in illicit stills. Some prominent farmers of that day ran little stills, but as the sentiments of the communities changed they abandoned the business and when the- whiskey tax and bonding laws of the Civil War period were enacted, the last one of them was converted into scrap to escape any trouble with the "revi- nooers." But during the war and until some years thereafter Detrich Glander, below West Alexandria, and Perry Turner, near Lewisburg, en- gaged in the distilling business on a considerable scale, under government supervision, but some thirty-five or forty years ago the distillers' com- bines began getting in their work and the business became less remunera- tive to the little fellows, and Glander and Turner went out of business and the distilleries were scrapped, so that for more than thirty five years past there has been no whiskey manufactured in the county, although there is some demand therefor, which is supplied by our kind neighboring counties.

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Among the early settlers of the county mention ought to be made of those who helped to win this fair land from the red man, and in doing so served as soldiers in St. Clair's and Wayne's armies, passing through or fighting the Indians in this county. Luke Vorhees and John Goldsmith were at the battle with Little Turtle's band at Fort St. Clair and Vorhees later settled in Gratis township and is said to be buried at Wheatville. John Goldsmith returned to this county about 1806 and entered a quarter of land about a half mile west of the fort, and proceeded to deaden about seven acres of land, and then went back after his possessions in Kentucky, and, on his return, found that about half of his deadening was over the line on Bruce's land. He settled on the quarter and continued to live there until his death. There are a number of his descendants living in Eaton and vicinity.

THE FIRST WHITE BOY.

Jacob Parker was one of Wayne's soldiers and has been spoken of before as settling in Lanier township before it was surveyed about 1798. His son, Peter Parker, claimed to be the first boy born in the county and that his birth ante-dated that of George D. Hendrix by a few months, and between them was often good-natured raillery over the dates.

Samuel Hawkins, mentioned elsewhere, was at St. Clair's defeat and at Fallen Timbers and was wounded so badly that he never fully regained his strength.

David E. Hendrix, the first permanent settler of Eaton, was a soldier under Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, and one of the most fearless of the latter's messengers, volunteering to take dispatches from Greenville to Cin- cinnati in the dead of winter on horseback and alone, when it was known that the woods were full of prowling Indians, riding all day and all night and making the distance in twenty-four hours, delivering the message safely, but the frost of that bitter ride of seventy miles left its marks on his hands and feet for the rest of his life.

The real early settlers of our county were such men as these, and the hardy and daring men who would naturally be friendly with and at- tracted by the quality of such men. In addition to the above there were several soldiers of the Revolution who settled in the county. Their graves are marked in our cemeteries and due tribute paid to their memories each Decoration Day.

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A REVIEW OF ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS.

In seems fitting to name and locate some of the physical phenomena of the last century. The spring of 1859 was a forward spring and crops were planted early, and on June 4 of that year much of the corn was eighteen to twenty inches high, and the wheat in bloom. On the morn- ing of June 5 there was a severe killing frost that wilted the corn nearly to the ground and many farmers plowed and replanted, while others sheared the corn off below the black line with sheep shears. The corn generally seemed to take on new life and the crop of corn and wheat was good, the greatest permanent damage being to garden truck.

-The year 1875 was the wettest year remembered by our oldest men. It rained so continuously from middle June to the middle of August that much of the wheat and oats crop could not be got dry enough in the shock to thresh or haul into the barns, the grain growing in the shock until many shocks looked green and the sheaves had to be torn apart by hand before they could be loaded on the wagons.

The winter of 1880-81 was perhaps the longest winter that is remem- bered, there being one hundred and ten days of sleighing in Preble county, and while the weather was cold the thermometers did not register the lowest temperature we have suffered.

The year 1895 has been called the dry year in this county. Locally we had no rain for weeks and many farmers drove stock to the creek or hauled water for use. In the year 1900 the wheat crop of the county was a total failure, it being claimed that there were not two thousand bushels threshed in the county and it was of the poorest quality, not a bushel being bought that year at the Eaton elevators.

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History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, Part 13

Author: R. E. Lowry Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 985

Author: R. E. Lowry
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 985